More Happenings in the Hoood!

Miss B. improvising on a set of roller skates!














Billy decided he wanted to wait until Saturday to finish some school work. A great plan, until Saturday and friends showed up in the back yard. So this is, Saturday School!











Dolly is dog sitting this week. Not this sweet little pup but another. This is Candy and we share her with our neighbors. We buy dog treats and play with her and they get dog food, grooming, vet bills and such.

Like her flower? This dog will tolerate Dolly for a while. She knows Dolly will save the bones from meat, treats and even slip her some cheese or lunch meet on occasion. Just one little bark at the door and her mere exsistance is rewarded!

With the warm temperatures, it was time to switch out the winter for the summer clothes! It is like Christmas as the children are reunited with favorites or find new favorites to wear.


This outfit was the top pick for Dolly!














And this outfit (or should I say her brother's hand me down pjs) was Miss B's top pick. I heard My Dear instruct her to put shoes on as she walked outside in her " outfit." She got a bit upset and said, "But I am a firetruck and firetrucks don't wear shoes!" Then the voice of wisdom said, "then you need tires!" Apparently, she likes white walls!












Our Dolly had a date planned with My Dear and eagerly awaited her time to go! My Dear works hard to maintain time with the children despite his work schedule. Even an oil change becomes an opportunity to talk.

GO BLUE!!!

Billy is all ready for March Madness! Check out his new accessory!

Way to go Billy!

















GO CATS!!!

One Word Challenge

A few years ago, I was challenged by a radio station to choose one word as a goal for my year. The one word would sum up what I was to work on over the year like a New Year's resolution.

That year, I chose the word LESS. LESS selfishness, LESS stuff in my house, LESS baggage in my life, LESS debt, LESS orphans in the world, LESS physical weight on me, and LESS thought about me and more about the Savior. I had no idea what God had planned for me that year, only to choose that word.

At the end of that year, I assessed the year and I indeed had gotten rid of many material possessions and refrained from purchasing others. We had paid some debt down. I had maintained my physical weight. I took a mission trip to aid the orphan and had began to deal with some baggage. Pretty good huh! Well, not good enough as God called me to the same word the following year. THEN he showed me how to do it! He called me to LESS than the LESS I had already presented.

The baggage continued to be laid down, lost some weight, and learned it really is less about me and more about what HE wants to do in and through our lives. In that year, we also took guardianship of a very handsome and enjoyable young man. This, I am certain, only happened because the baggage had finally been dealt with-not that I will ever be completely finished with it but God has that under control and LESS of me trying to control it.

This year, PRAISE GOD!, He released me of that word but quickly showed me that I had another area that TOTALLY needed God sized attention. I have two words for this year--I am hopeful that means I will GET one early in the year and can move on to the other....a girl can dream!

PEACE. As Ms. Martha said, seasoned in years and experiences, I am the barometer for my home. There is a lot of truth to, "If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!" I had disturbed the peace in our home. My Dear is the nicest person on the planet. He rarely speaks out of anger or frustration. I need to set that type of peace in our home. Our children deserve it!

The other word is INTENTIONAL. First off, I need to be intentional about the climate I establish in our home. If I am grumpy at school time, what I am teaching them about learning, mothering, and love? I do believe a public school teacher would teach ALL of those things MUCH better! I must be intentional with my time. It is so short with them, what do I want them to know? How do I want them to feel about themselves? Do I let them know how I feel about them? Being intentional means doing it on purpose. This is not just in our family but in the mission field, everywhere I go! I need to be intentional about communicating God's love to others. You know that love that took care of the baggage for me, yep, that undying love.

So that is where I am. What about you? What is your word?

A Journey of Hope

Every Christmas my mom blesses the children and I with a new ornament. She loves Christmas ornaments and is a Hallmark Queen! I had told her last year that it was no longer necessary that she give me an ornament, but she is my mom and well, she disagreed!

My Dear has been putting the tree up with the children as a surprise for me while I was away at our church's annual Christmas Tea. They did not have the tea last year so I simply sat on the couch, uninvolved. I received the new ornament in the mail and kinda tossed it into the storage tub in no mood to unwrap it or the other ornaments dating to 1995! I was going through a private battle in my life and could see little beyond it. Frankly, the only reason we even had a Christmas tree was because My Dear put it up and the children begged him to do it!



This Christmas I was in a much better place-MUCH! My Dear put the tree up and I opened the storage tub and enjoyed trying to create the Norman Rockwell Christmas. The ornaments were a bit a mess because My Dear and the children had packed them at the end of the season last year. I sorted through, opening boxes and sharing stories with the girls about the ornaments. Then I picked up an ornament I did not remember. The date was last year's. It was the ornament from my mom, the one I was "unable" to see last year. God knew I would not look at the ornament last year so He put a message on the ornament that would be a reminder to me this year of what He had done. The word I claimed for my journey last year was HOPE and sure enough the ornament read just that. It reads "Hope" and is dated the year that my HOPE truly came alive in Christ!

Another Christ in Christmas Activity

Repost from 2008-you can check out other ideas there as well. Another fun way to keep Christ the JOY of Christmas.

Shepherds Point of View

Here is another option to allow your children the THRILL OF CHRIST in Christmas!
Last year, after opening presents, we read the Christmas story in Luke 2. We listened how the shepherds were told about Jesus birth and went to find Him. Here is what to do:
Place angels in different rooms of your home like a scavenger hunt. I referred to the children as Shepherd Dolly (age 3) and Shepherd Billy (age 6) and we went on the hunt for Baby Jesus. The angels should be visible from one room to the other so they can spot them. Ours were more like a straight path with angels along the way to reinforce them. The end of the hunt lead us to our unfinished basement-damp and cold, probably like a stable. There, hanging from the ceiling, would be the final angel and under it was the Baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph. That year, behind the figures, we chose to cover and reveal an additional gift for each of the children.

This year, I think we will simply hide Mary, Joseph and the baby and allow the children the thrill of a scavenger hunt to find them. If you are like us and have a nice age gap from oldest to our youngest child, perhaps a group of Shepherds play first then a group of Wise Guys will follow stars and hunt after the older siblings. This would be especially fun for the olders to set up for the youngers after they have played.

Give it a try and add your own touches! Have fun as you teach the true meaning of Christmas!

The Inn Keeper

A few years ago, My Dear and I along with Billy were gifted an amazing gift-a trip to Israel.

While on the trip we were able to see so much and learn even more! We of course went to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Interesting enough, any place thought to be holy has a church built on top of it. This was the believed birth place of Christ. It was heavily decorated and it was impossible to visualize it as a stable with all of the candles, paintings, and fancy lighting which was needed since we were in a basement. Yep, that is it in the picture above. The location was crowded and people were packed in for a Christmas carol and then lead out like an elementary field trip.

Our guide then took us next door. It was not crowded at all, actually our group was the only one there. It looked far more like a stable of that time would appear, stone and cave like. The guide then shared that most groups did not go there but he wanted us to see it. The place where we were was where the Inn would have been....(such a poet, arent' I! ) It is the place were the so called nasty Inn Keeper turned away the Christ Child--who would do that?

The hotel of that day were one large room that everyone slept in together-everyone staying in the hotel-everyone! It would be filled with noise and people drinking and partying. So when Mary and Joseph came to the door, the so called grumpy Inn Keeper had compassion for them. He did not want Mary to be in that environment while she had her baby. He wanted privacy for her. He wanted Joseph to be able to care for her without fearing for her and the baby in the setting. He wanted baby Jesus to have a "Silent Night."

I ran my fingers over the stone realizing this is more what it would have been like, like this Inn, cold and hard and how sweet a bed of straw must have been.

I thought about the gruff image I had of the Inn Keeper and my heart was filled with thanksgiving for the compassion he showed this young family. So it seems to me the Inn Keeper has gotten a bad wrap. He truly had the families best interest at heart. He had room for Jesus in his stable and likely in his heart too!